The Luckiest Girl in the School | Page 7

of
nervousness seemed running down her back like drops from a
shower-bath. Her hands were trembling. With a great effort she pulled
herself together.
"It's no use funking!" she thought. "I'll make as good a shot as I can at
things, and if I fail--well, I shall have plenty of companions in
misfortune, at any rate!"
A pile of foolscap paper with red-ruled margins, a clean sheet of white

blotting paper, and a penholder with a new nib lay ready. Each of the
other twenty victims was surveying a supply of similar material. On the
blackboard was chalked the word "Silence."
In a dead hush the candidates sat and waited. Exactly on the stroke of
nine Miss Bishop entered and handed a sheaf of printed questions to the
teacher in charge, who distributed them round the room. The subject for
the first hour was arithmetic. Winona read over her paper slowly. She
felt capable of managing it, all except the last two problem sums, which
were outside her experience. She knew it would mainly be a question of
accuracy.
"I'll work them each twice if I've only time," she thought, starting at
number one.
An hour is after all only made up of sixty minutes, and these seemed to
fly with incredible rapidity. The teacher on the platform had sternly
reproved a girl guilty of counting aloud in an agitated whisper,
threatening instant expulsion for a repetition of such an offense, but
with this solitary exception nobody transgressed the rules. All sat
quietly absorbed in their work, and an occasional rustle of paper or
scratch of a pen were the only sounds audible. At precisely five minutes
to ten the deity on the platform sounded a bell, and ordered papers to be
put together. She collected them, handed them to another mistress, then
without any break proceeded to deal out the questions for the next
hour's examination. This was in geography, and here Winona was not
on such sure ground. Granted that you are acquainted with certain rules
in arithmetic, it is always possible to work out problems, but it needed
more knowledge than she possessed to write answers to the riddles that
confronted her. She had never heard of "The Iron Gates," could not
place Alcona and Altona, was hazy as to the whereabouts of the
Mourne Mountains, and utterly unable to draw an accurate map of the
Balkan States. She scored a little on Canada, for she had learnt North
America last term at Miss Harmon's, but with Australia and New
Zealand she was imperfectly acquainted. She wrote away, getting hotter
and hotter as she realized her deficiencies, winding up five minutes
before the time allotted, in a flushed and decidedly inky condition.

At eleven a short interval was allowed, and the candidates thankfully
adjourned. Outside in the corridor they compared notes.
"Well, of all detestable papers this geography one is the limit!"
declared an aggrieved voice.
It was the girl who had said that she always mixed Madras and Bombay,
and who had studied her text-book up to the last available moment.
Apparently her eleventh hour industry had not sufficed to tide her over
her difficulties.
"It was catchy in parts," agreed the owner of the swastika, "but I liked
one or two questions. I just happened to know them, so I bowled ahead.
That's what comes of wearing a mascot!"
"Don't crow too soon!" laughed the girl with the fair pigtail.
"Remember, there are four other exams. to follow. Your luck may leave
you at any moment."
"Don't mention more exams.! I feel inclined to turn tail and run home!"
declared another.
"There's the bell! Don't give us much time, do they? Now for the
torture chamber again! Brace your nerves!"
"I wonder if most of them have done better or worse than I have!"
thought Winona, as she took her seat once more at No. 10 desk. "A
good many were grumbling, but that sandy-haired girl in the spectacles
said nothing. No more did the one with the red hair-ribbon. Of course
they might be feeling too agonized for words, but on the other hand
they might be secretly congratulating themselves."
It was not the moment, however, for speculation as to her neighbors'
progress. The next set of questions was being distributed, and she took
up her copy eagerly. Her heart fell as she read it over. Her knowledge
of English history was not very accurate, and the facts demanded were
for the most part exactly those which she could not remember. The
dread of failure loomed up large. She could only attempt about half of

the questions, and even in these she was not ready with dates. Then
suddenly Percy's advice flashed into her mind. "Write from a romantic
standpoint, and make your paper sound poetical." It